A South Korean English language report on the launch of a “domestically produced” Korean satellite on a Japanese rocket which used footage of the rocket from which “Nippon” and the Japanese flag had been conspicuously removed have outraged many Japanese.

The report, from “Korea Today,” uses CG footage of the Arirang-3 launch (aboard a Japanese rocket) from which the Japanese flag and “Nippon” are absent, whilst prominently displaying the Korean flag on the rocket instead.

The reporting also appears to be at some pains to avoid mention of the fact Japan conducted the launch, and is conspicuously vague as to what “home-grown technology” is actually used in the satellite (the previous two Arirang satellites were primarily made by France).

The English language report at issue (the comments field of which is presently swarming with outraged nationalists):

Footage of the actual launch:

JAXA stresses that the rocket used is of Japanese design and manufacture, but “has no particular comment” on the Korean portrayal of the launch.

The rocket used was an H2A, developed by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries for JAXA and first launched in 2001, launched from Tanegashima in Okinawa. A Japanese satellite, “Shizuku,” was also on board.

South Korea’s earlier satellites were launched by the US and Russia, and whilst it has attempted to develop its own launch capability using adapted Russian rockets (the US regards their program as provocative and refused to help), they have so far all failed.

The satellite itself was a “multi-purpose” earth observation satellite, developed by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute with the “technical support” of Astrium, part of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS), and Europe’s main rocket and satellite manufacturer.

Given the reputation of Korea in these matters and their treatment of the Japanese rocket, there is some suspicion that the satellite was merely bought from Astrium and rebadged as Korean.

The rocket’s launch was widely reported in Japan, although these reports focussed on it being Japan’s first commercial entry into the international launch market, although with the proviso that its services cost 20%-30% more than competing offerings (although according to Korean reports, Japan was selected for being able to beat Russia on cost).

Amongst Japanese online there is the predictable outpouring of anti-Korean outrage, with particular umbrage at Korea portraying a Japanese rocket as being Korean to an international audience:

“Pitiful!”

“What a shameless country!”

“Honestly, this is even more shameless than what the North gets up to in this area.”

“You can really tell they are both alike from incidents like this.”

“They always do this.”

“I just knew they’d do this.”

“Same tactic Samsung uses with Apple’s gear.”

“Space tech is hard to rip off, isn’t it?”

“I’m puzzled about why they left the Mistubishi logo on there though – what’s the point of removing the flag if you leave that on?”

“They can’t read the kanji for the company name under it, so it doesn’t matter!”

“I think it’s a bit strange to even have the Korean flag up first on the body…”

“JAXA is right to ignore this, you’ll just provoke hwabyung if you call them out on it.”

“A French satellite using German optics launched with a Japanese rocket – what part of this is Korean!”

“There are reports saying they asked JAXA for footage of the launch which minimised the visibility of the Japanese flag.”

“Erasing the logo and faking it with some CG, come on.”

“Faking history and now current events, eh Korea?”

“With reporting on these events being simultaneous and worldwide, it seems pointless to put out such obvious forgeries.”

“They are saying they made the entire satellite domestically as well – but in fact EADS (France) developed it, and Carl Zeiss (Germany) made the optics… They don’t say which part is Korea made.”

“The part where they lie about it being made in Korea.”

“Give them a break – a fake Korean beauty presenting fake CG about a satellite they didn’t really make is classic Korea.”

Thats always possible. Everyone might just be reading a little too much into it.

But being Korean and all, I wouldn't be surprised if they did it on purpose too. The China - Korea - Japan relationships aren't one sided of course, so you see stuff like this happen in every direction, but there are tons of people who would much rather die than admit that their rival countries have done anything remotely worth acknowledging.

They should kill themselves and take this shit elsewhere. World doesn't need to constantly hear about 5-year old bitching by growth/mentally-challenged races whose only talent is sucking their elder's cock.

The relation between Astrium and KARI is that Astrium designs the thing in Toulouse and then KARI assembles and tests it in Daejeon. That's what happened with the previous one, which was launched on an Ariane, and although it's possible that the Koreans might have been able to assemble the parts that didn't change again by themselves, the crown jewel of the satellite, it's optical instrument, was designed again by Astrium.
‘Domestic’ in this context means that Korea provided the money and some of the manual labour.

You are the one getting nippy about overusing the word 'abort' in a general sense to give a false picture of the situation which you have no professional background to back up. The way you are using it is not consistant with the reality of the situation - your tone makes it sound like an absolute diasater, whereas the successful launch completely invalidates the picture you would like to convey that it was somehow a big failure.

The very fact that you brought up these two launches as a comparison ((which is like comparing a toddler standing up for the first time while an adult is working and testing his new found mountain gear for his 15th climb to K2) shows that you have no interest in listening to hard facts and falling in line with what is reality, only using select words and your own fantasies with imaginary perspectives.

'Aborting' is not a right term actually. 'Aborting' in general sense implies failure and/or scrapping the plan, as in there was a critical flaw in the overall plan which pulled it back to the drawing board. Like if there was a fundamental design flaw that resulted in a failure of a car design.

This was a temporary hold by a very minor technical issue that was fixed in less than two-days. The launch was not flawless, but it was not such a huge let down as you would like to imagine since it would be anticipated some problems would occur in undertaking of that size by a private company. Kinda like if a hit theater act would not be a 'failure' if secondary leading actor happen to sprain his ankle and it had to be pushed back for a day.

By the way, ferrying a cargo capsule is MUCH more complex operation than getting a shitty satellite into orbit, which dozens of countries aside from them have succeeded countless times before. With indigenous technologies btw.

I know. Which is why i said aborted, its not a success or failure yet. But even you have to admit aborting a much hype launch is a major setback. Especially when it was done mere seconds into the launch. Even the one doing the countdown wasn't aware so it could have probably gone either that instant.

LOL so one US rocket carrying far more complex design by a private funded company gets postponed due to a glitch for a day, and they fire a rocket ripped from foreign tech carrying a third-rate thirty-year too late satellite with STATE BACKING and all of a sudden they out pace EVERYBODY?

I suppose they need to find any excuse and timely coincidences to make themselves feel better from their terminal inferiority complex.